My Journey: Discovering the Power of the Breath

Breathing is the first thing we do when we enter this world and one of the last things we do when we leave.

However, many of us don’t consider its true importance. The breath can be POWERFUL when used correctly, or it can be DIMINISHING when used incorrectly. The vast majority of modern society does not even think about their breath; they do not consider why they breathe, how they breathe, and how the nuances of breathing patterns influence their health, energy, sleep, or even physical appearance.

Yes, breathing in different patterns really can influence our overall health. Breathing allows us to access our nervous system, control our immune system, regulate our mood, improve exercise performance, recover faster, sleep deeper, and can even restore our health.

So…when was the last time you consciously focused on how you were breathing? Right now, are you breathing fast or slow? Deep or shallow? Through your nose or mouth? Are you using your chest or belly?

Personally, I’ve started paying close attention to my breath.

My First Experience with Breathing

I first connected with the practice of breathing when I was young. As an active child, I participated in almost every sport you could name, but my primary discipline was hockey (ice hockey for the Aussies). When hockey training got difficult and my legs were screaming at me to stop, my dad would tell me to focus on my breathing. He taught me to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth and to focus on my breath instead of the discomfort of the work. In my teenage years, I discovered a different connection to breathing when I started practicing yoga. My neighbour, and close family friend’s, mother was a yoga teacher, and I began learning how to move through poses with my breath and use different styles of breathing aimed to increase energy, improve digestion, or just to relax, occasionally falling asleep at the end of class. I was altering my nervous system by just breathing and I had no idea.

At the time, I didn’t understand the power or importance of these things; I was simply following instructions. I continued to unconsciously use my breath in different ways, breathing powerfully through my mouth when resistance training, breathing slower and longer to recover after a run or a long bout of exercise and breathing shallowly and rapidly when anxious, which for me typically happened when I was trying to fall asleep. This was something I struggled with throughout my late teens until I was about 25. Staying asleep was fine, however falling asleep could take me hours. Most of the time I fell asleep listening to music or watching TV, paying little attention to my breath. Even still, during this time, I was unconsciously using my breath to create different states of my mind and body. I was shifting my physiological and emotional state with my breath, yet I was completely unaware of what I was doing.

Learning That Breathing Could Change My Nervous System

The next time I connected with breathing was when I began working as a chiropractor. At work, I learned how to treat patients with autonomic dysfunction, which occurs when the part of the nervous system that controls things like heart rate, breathing, blood distribution, digestion, and pupil size starts misbehaving. I started to learn the mechanisms behind how breathing in different ways, with different rhythms, and with different intentions could shift our autonomic nervous system. Even though I had studied anatomy, physiology, and neuroscience for nearly seven years at this point, I still didn’t fully connect my knowledge to its real-world application or my own breathing patterns. I failed to see that by deciding how we breathe we can change our physiological and emotional state and impact our health.

Around this same time, now 25 years old, I started following some pages on social media, mainly Rory Warnock, a breath-work instructor and expanding my learning by listening to the Huberman Lab podcast. One of the experiences that reconnected me to the power of breathing was a free breath-work session by Rory. During this session, I had a profound experience. After a series of rounds of breathing, while holding my breath, my whole body felt as if it were vibrating, yet I was calm, at peace, and comfortably holding my breath.

Controlling My Nighttime Anxiety with the Power of the Breath

It blew me away, I was fascinated by how simply choosing to consciously breathe in a different pattern allowed me to create such an intense experience, a complete shift from lying on the floor only moments before. At this session, I also learned how specific breathing practices could improve sleep quality and help me to fall asleep more quickly. For me, this was something I was still trying to figure out. It had always been a challenge to quiet the voice inside my head and stop my racing thoughts before falling asleep. Often they would leave me laying awake, stressing about things that had yet to come, in the past or were completely out of my control. As I previously mentioned, to cope, I developed a habit of listening to music or watching TV until I could no longer keep my eyes open. It was all I knew.

My awareness of the importance of breathing came to fruition when Carla’s brother recommended that I read “Breath” by James Nestor. This book is absolutely a must-read, so please do yourself a favor, purchase a copy, and read it immediately. I guarantee it will change your perspective on the true importance of breathing.

Breathing Functionally and Adaptively

Reading the book “Breath” by James Nestor, was the final act in my journey. It allowed me to reflect on all my experiences with breathing and combine my breadth of knowledge to appreciate the true importance of breathing. After roughly 20 years of being told how important breathing was and unconsciously following instructions on how to breathe, I finally understood that it was all connected. The breath is powerful. I had been using my breath all those years to control my physiology and my emotions, completely unaware I was doing so. I simply just hadn’t developed an awareness of the connection between how I was breathing and how it was making me feel. Then, I realised that when I felt stressed or when my thoughts would start to race at night that my breathing was also changing, not in a way that was helping but shifting towards a dysfunctional pattern. Now, I understand that I can take control of my breath in order to regulate my emotions, my stress, and my thoughts. I have the power to decide what state I want to be in before sleep or when I feel stressed throughout the day.

Pause for a moment…

Check in again, how are you breathing now? How do you breathe when you are stressed? When you are relaxed? When you are exercising?

Since I began paying attention to my breath, I’ve noticed a significant improvement in my ability to manage my stress and feelings of anxiousness. I feel more alert and present throughout the day, have seen improvements in my ability to perform and recover from exercise, and have drastically improved my sleep. I’ve explored numerous practices, from Wim Hof to Box Breathing to CO2 tolerance breathing and mouth taping. I plan to examine my experience with each of these practices in the future and explain the mechanistic understanding of how they work.

Breathing with Intention

Now, I pay close attention to my breath. Because with this knowledge and awareness, I can choose how to breathe based on my desired outcome. I can breathe fast and shallowly, through my mouth to increase my alertness and give me energy or I can breathe slow and deep, through my nose to relax and improve my recovery. I can also choose to breathe functionally to support health and wellness or I can choose to breathe dysfunctionally, a pattern that promotes ill health and disease. The power of breathing is that YOU get to decide how to use it.

What did I learn from reflecting on my past experiences? To boil it down to a single lesson:

Although breathing is usually involuntary and we don’t think about it, we can gain volitional control over this process and decide how to breathe, which can drastically impact our health, performance, and life!

Our breath is a powerful tool that is always with us. We can use it to create different states of mind and body. We can use it to manage our autonomic nervous system, reduce stress, and improve our overall health and well-being. So take another moment to pay attention to your breath. Observe how you are breathing and how it makes you feel. And remember that you have the power to decide how to breathe and how to use this tool to improve your life.

Coming Soon…

In future posts, I will be exploring exactly how breathing is controlled and different breathing practices, providing tools that you can use to improve your health and performance.